GALEON IE

GALEON Phase I completed in 2007. GALEON Phase II started shortly after. However, Phase II is currently dormant awaiting the completion of the revision to OGC Web Coverage Service (version 2). Once WCS 2.0 work is completed, GALEON Phase II will restart.

Following is a summary of the Phase 1 activity.

The GALEON IE will implement a geo-interface to netCDF datasets via the OpenGIS(R) Web Coverage Server (WCS 1.0) protocol specification. The interface will provide interoperability among netCDF, OPeNDAP, ADDE, and THREDDS client/server and catalog protocols. The IE may generate change requests to the WCS and other OpenGIS specifications.

The GALEON IE will implement a geo-interface to netCDF datasets via the WCS 1.0 protocol specification. It will implement the WCS as a layer above a set of client/server and catalog protocols already in use in the atmospheric and oceanographic sciences communities. In particular, it will leverage OPeNDAP servers that provide access to netCDF datasets and accompanying THREDDS servers providing ancillary information about the datasets. The IE will investigate the feasibility of adapting data and metadata originating from OPeNDAP/THREDDS servers to the WCS specifications, in so contributing to bridge the gap between the atmospheric, oceanographic and GIS communities, by alleviating data interoperability issues. The initial experiments will deliver collections of numerical forecast model output which consist of what are sometime referred to as five dimensional or 5D grids (multiple parameters (e.g., temperature, pressure, relative humidity) varying in three spatial dimensions with two time coordinates (model run time and forecast time). It is important to note that, while it is convenient to refer to these as 5D datasets, the 3 spatial dimensions and temporal dimensions are fundamentally different in that they are part of the domain whereas the multiple parameters are part of the range in the WCS data models and interface specifications. This IE can be seen as a step in the direction of interoperability with data systems already in existence in the oceanographic and atmospheric sciences.

The initiators of the Interoperability Experiment are: Unidata/UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research), IMAA-CNR (Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis of the Italian National Research Council), George Mason University, and the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Geospatial Interoperability Office. Other OGC members are encouraged to participate in or sign on as observers for this Interoperability Experiment.